If Pot Were Legal, No One Would Grow it in the Woods

Can you even think of anything besides marijuana that is grown secretly in the woods? Of course not, because hiking over mountains through dense underbrush with pounds of fertilizer on your back is so stupid and crazy that no one would ever do it unless there were millions of dollars at stake. Unfortunately, there actually are people making millions off these operations and the U.S. Congress is so fed up with the situation that they've issued a resolution demanding that something be done about it.

Supporting the goal of eradicating illicit marijuana cultivation on Federal lands and calling on the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy to develop a coordinated strategy to permanently dismantle Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating on Federal lands.

Whereas Mexican drug trafficking organizations have established robust and dangerous marijuana plantations on Federal lands managed by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management;

Whereas the Office of National Drug Control Policy reported that 1,800,000 marijuana plants were eradicated from Federal lands in 2006, 2,890,000 marijuana plants were eradicated in 2007, and 4,000,000 marijuana plants were eradicated in 2008;

The list of grievances doesn’t stop there, and I can assure these morons that it will only get longer as we persist in looking to people like the drug czar for solutions. We've had a "coordinated strategy" for dealing with this mess for quite a few years now and it horribly sucks. Ironically, you couldn't design a better plan for causing pot growing in our forests than the government's so-called strategy for preventing it. That's why they keep finding more plants every year.

If you don't want Mexican gangsters growing marijuana in the woods, then it's time to allow people who aren't Mexican gangsters to grow marijuana somewhere that isn’t the woods.

1)where do you come up with the presumption people would run to govt lands. if one is already allowed to grow, its much simpler to put some more plants in an area than start hiking to remote mountainsides to start a brand new grow op.

2)there is an issue of theft with anything of any value, thats why there are security systems. besides uprooting and stealing plants will most likely kill them.

3)and this is the best one because you have no idea what you are saying. growers on federal land all use fertilizers and have to build irrigation systems, there is no other consistent water for growing (remember these are REMOTE areas) and they need fertilizer to speed up the process. this is expensive and inconvenient. do you find vineyards and tobacco fields grown illegally on federal lands?

you can grow. Those who wish to exceed these restrictions for commercial

purposes will likely still seek to do so on gov't land.

I believe the end of alcohol(another psychoactive substance) prohibition is a good framework for what to expect with the end of marijuana prohibition. Once marijuana is legal, economies of scale will drive the price of marijuana down. Large companies will be able to legally secure millions if not billions of dollars to finance the planting, cultivation, and distribution of marijuana. This will drive the market price of marijuana down. The reduced price will reduce the incentive to illegally use government land to grow marijuana. The cost will not be worth the expected profit.

Prohibition creates incentives to break the law. The illegality of marijuana artificially increases the profits which motivates trespassing on federal lands in order to reap those profits. If we made tomatoes illegal tomorrow we would see the same results. Prohibition of tomatoes, alcohol or marijuana is a blunt force that artificially inflates the market price of the prohibited item. Alcohol is strictly regulated by the federal and state government but people don't trespass on federal lands to secretly make their moonshine. Market forces make moonshine unprofitable. Just as market forces will make trespassing on federal lands to grow marijuana unprofitable.

#2 There is an issue of theft associated with grows regardless of

legality. This is another reason farmers will seek to grow in difficult

to access remote areas.

Once prohibition of an item is repealed, economies of scale and rule of law will eliminate the motivation to steal the prohibited item. When it becomes legal to possess a previously prohibited item the law recognizes and enforces the property right. Therefore, the law is now on the side of the person who has possession of the item. This doesn't mean that just because you can own a car that cars won't get stolen. Yes, people do steal cars. However, because it is legal to own cars the law now enforces and defends the property right. The other important force is economies of scale. Once marijuana becomes inexpensive through economies of scale there won't be an incentive to steal.

#3 There is an enormous expense of resources associated

with growing, particularly large quantities. Growing on mountain

slopes provides ideal sun exposure and ample irrigation

at no cost to the grower as opposed to growing indoors.

There are expenses associated with growing bananas. I can't begin to tell you about the complex horticulture and unique history of the banana. I don't know and I don't care. However, I love bananas and I can go to Wal-Mart and get bananas cheap. End prohibition and unleash the power of market forces. Where there is a will we will find a way.

You would think that those ignorant politicians up on high on Capitol Hill could discern reality from lunacy. Obviously not. By 2012, this reefer madness agenda will be seen for the sham that it is by the masses. The old prohibitionists are moving away from the ballot box and into the pine box. God speed. 2012.

The latest legislative hysteria designed to send shock troops into national forests to stop grow-ops reeks of the usual naïveté of government and its ever-present façade designed to make citizens believe it’s being effective against Mexico’s cartels.

There’s no way the federal tax-money burners can fully thwart the ‘cannabis menace’ allegedly plaguing federal lands. There’s too much wilderness area and too few personnel to cover it. At most, prohibitionists will find only a small percentage of total grows, making their crusade a mere symbolic effort designed to convince the public that something is being done—and that more money is needed for the government’s sanctimonious, never-ending effort.

They won’t be busting seedlings. As usual, the government agents will wait until late in the growing season to act. Just prior to harvesting, plants are most detectable and large enough to be considered a significant enough haul so that agents can brag and take pictures of huge piles of chopped weed. This means any forest destruction that could possibly result from a forest grow-op will have already occurred by the time the authorities get there to stop it.